Future Goals

New Projects
Membership Renewal Drive The membership renewal drive will be undertaken in November and December of each year encouraging current members to continue their membership and to consider renewing at a higher membership level.

New Member Drive The new member drive will be undertaken in February and March encouraging non-members who visited the House & Museum during the past year to become members.

Collaboration with the Three Other Nebraska Author Sites (Cather, Neihardt, and Sandoz) This collaboration began in 1998 with the idea of preparing combined grant proposals. This collaboration has lead to: the coordination of each group's literary events so that no scheduling conflicts occur; the advertising of each other's events; and the submission of a grant proposal to the State of Nebraska Tourism Office for a "Nebraska's Literary Heritage" brochure including all four author sites, which was approved. (These brochures are in the process of being prepared and will be available by Memorial Day 1999.) The collaborative continues to meet and plans to submit other grant proposals.

Fall Reminder to Schools in Eastern Nebraska The reminders will be sent to schools in Eastern Nebraska encouraging teachers to use Mrs. Aldrich's novels and short stories in their classroom. They will be informed of the availability of lesson plans with a curriculum for Mrs. Aldrich's writings. The teachers will be given the Bess Streeter Aldrich Foundation web site address and be invited to schedule a tour of the Bess Streeter Aldrich House and Museum for their classes.

Future Projects
Improve the Bess Streeter Aldrich House & Museum Brochure The creation of a full color brochure with photos of Mrs. Aldrich, the house, and the museum will present a more professional look. This brochure would be distributed to Visitor Centers, Chambers of Commerce, other tourist sites, etc. to increase the number of people that visit the Bess Streeter Aldrich House and Museum annually. We had nearly 1500 visitors during 1998.

Publish and Distribute an Annual Report and Budget To date, the Bess Streeter Aldrich Foundation has not published an annual report. Annual meetings have been held but the reports have not been published. Our goal is to publish and distribute these reports to our members.

Restoration of the Aldrich House The Bess Streeter Aldrich House was built in 1922. Our goal is to return the house to its 1922 appearance, i.e. removing the carpet and refinishing the hard wood floors, purchasing 1920's area rugs, replacing the wall paper with vintage wall paper, etc. There are also some repairs that will be required in the near future. There is a crack in the basement wall which causes some leakage. The clay pipes of the drain line will have to be replaced. The second floor air conditioner is not operational. The first floor unit is 20 years old, inefficient, and unable to keep all of the house comfortable for our visitors. Repairing or replacing one or both of the air conditioning units will be necessary in the near future.

Refurnishing of the Aldrich House The house currently has either original Aldrich furniture or 1920's furniture in half of the 12 rooms. Our goal is to have the entire house's furnishings reflect 1920's decor.

Dreams for the Future
Purchase and Restore the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Hall In 1900, there were 360 G.A.R. Halls in Nebraska. Elmwood has one of the four remaining original G.A.R. Halls. It is in a state of disrepair and we would like to purchase it and restore it. It would be an additional site for visitors to tour.

Create a Sod House Exhibit Mrs. Aldrich includes sod houses in several of her novels. They are definitely a part of Nebraska's rich heritage and would be something that most people have only seen in pictures. We would like the exhibit to be located next to the G.A.R. Hall (above) giving visitors another attraction at this site.

Equip the Aldrich Foundation Office The equipment that our Curator uses is her personal equipment. The Foundation should have its own computer, fax machine, and photocopier.

Complete the Curator's Quarters Currently, the Curator uses the kitchen, study, and bathroom which visitors tour and has a private bedroom and family room in the basement. Our goal is to have a full apartment in the basement so that the house can truly be returned to its 1920's condition, i.e. a cook stove, an appliance free kitchen, porcelain toilets, etc.

Start a Paid Intern Program UNL has a Museum Studies Department. We would like to have a Masters Degree Student work at the Bess Streeter Aldrich Museum.

Endow an Aldrich Chair at UNL or UNO Similar to the Cather Chair at UNL, we would like to have an Endowed Chair in the English Department of a College or University.

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